Ephesians 1:1-2

We often don’t think much of it when we see someone and they say, “Hey, how’re you doing?” In all honesty, when people ask people that today, people really don’t seem to care how you’re doing, they’re just trying to fill conversation. Well, that may be fine in our culture today, but if we take that approach to the Bible, we may be missing out on some rich truths that can be helpful for us today. And with that said, we will be diving into Ephesians 1:1-2, which reads

Ephesians 1:1–2 NKJV

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I want us to notice three things here and how it applies to our lives. What we’ll see as we apply it is that God has made me who I am, He has placed me where I’m at, and He has given me what I need to live as a citizen of a heavenly kingdom in this earthly country.

We Are What We Are By Grace

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,”

Paul is first, stating his apostolic authority while also making a defense that this is not an office he holds because of his own work, or his own desire but because of the will of God.

Now, Apostles were those who had seen the risen Christ (1 Cor. 9:1) and were appointed by Him to proclaim and to inscribe divinely approved testimony regarding the facts and meaning of His finished work.

Since this is true, we should really pay close attention to this writing because this is the very Word of God.

Now, the book of Ephesians lays out wonderfully in that the first half of the book is beautifully rich with theology that talks about Christ’s reconciling work of man to God, Christ breaking down the division between Jew and Gentiles, and that Christ has saved us to live as new people. Essentially the book, as one commentary puts it, is about, “The truths of God’s redemptive work in Christ; the unity of the church among diverse peoples; and proper conduct in the church, the home and the world.”

Next, Paul says, “To the Saints”

Now what do you think when someone says the word, “Saint”?

We often think of someone who is a super Christian or some kind of elite believer. But that’s not how the Bible explains it. Rather, Saints are those who have been made holy by the saving work of Christ.

The NIVAC says, “{Paul’s} primary concern was to emphasize that just as he had been appointed by God to be an apostle, they too had been separated to God…The focus is entirely on God’s action and the reference is to God’s saving work.”

App: And that brings me to the application which is that we are what we are solely by the grace of God. We are Christians by God’s grace, we are carriers of His Gospel by His grace. Every ounce of goodness in us is by His grace.

We Are Where We Are By God’s Grace

Now, I want us to notice two locations that Paul places these believers in. One of them is physical and the other is spiritual. The first being that these are people who live in Ephesus.

“To the Saints who are in Ephesus”

Paul is writing to these Christians who find themselves living in this city called Ephesus. So, for us to understand them; what they’re feeling and seeing and experiencing, it’s important for us to know a little about Ephesus. Ephesus was a massive city of around 250,000 people that had a massive stadium that would seat 25,000 people in it. They had a sewage system, aqueducts that carried fresh water, and a sea port that made this a huge economic city.

But this isn’t just some thriving city, it was also the home of the Temple of the goddess Diana that we see in Acts 19. In Acts 19:19, the preaching of the gospel had such an impact that these new converts burnt 50,000 pieces of silver worth of magic arts and books. Some say that much money would be the equivalent of 50,000 days of work. *Read 19:19-41* As we look at this passage we find that these people were extremely enthusiastic over their pagan goddess, though it could also be because they made money off of tourists coming to worship at her temple.

So, imagine that you’ve grown up living in this culture and one day God sends the Apostle Paul to preach the gospel and you hear and believe. Could you imagine how different life would be? How hard that must’ve been? We’ll we know from the Scriptures that God is sovereign over where we live and He is also sovereign over salvation. This is certainly the only way that I would ever come to believe. Well, Paul then says,

“To the saints who are in Ephesus, AND are faithful IN Christ Jesus.”

That phrase “faithful” there can also be understood as one who has faith in Christ. That statement “in Christ” is always intriguing to me as it refers to where we’re at positionally. You see, before we were saved, we were all in Adam. In Romans 5 we are told that Adam was our representative and when he sinned, spiritual deadness came to us all. But in Christ, we who are saved by grace through faith are now underneath the representation of Christ and now we belong to Him and are in Him. So, just as He died to wipe out our sin, our sins are gone, and just as He has raised from the dead, so too will we one day raise from the dead. This is taught in Romans 5:12 through Romans 6:14

This is a truth that radically changes all of our life. There is a oneness of identity that we know share with Christ as His Spirit lives in us as we are Christ’s hands and feet. And this is a tremendous truth, because we may be living in Burlington, but we are in Christ. And that affects how we see our city, our friends and our neighbors. It altars all of us, because years ago we may have worshipped the same things that everyone else did, but know we are pilgrims, we’re different. We might be living here, but we are alive in Christ.

We Have What We Have By Grace

It’s really easy for us to quickly read through these introductions because after all, when we greet each other today, it typically has no meaning. But that’s not the case here. I want to quickly take note of the term “grace and peace”

Now, the term grace, as some put it, is the gospel in one word. It is the prayer of Paul that the grace of God abound toward the Ephesians. One writer said, “This is God’s spontaneous, unmerited favor in action, his freely bestowed lovingkindness in operation, bestowing salvation upon guilty sinners. Grace is the fountain. Peace belongs to the stream of spiritual blessings which issues from this fountain. This peace is the smile of God as it reflects itself in the hearts of the redeemed, the assurance of reconciliation through the blood of the cross, true spiritual wholeness and prosperity.”

Harold Hoehner said, “Therefore, grace expresses the cause, God’s gracious work, and peace, the effect of God’s work. The grace of God that brings salvation to sinners effects peace between them and God, and that same grace enables believers to live peaceably with one another.”

Let’s look at that word “peace” now. Now, most people will assume that it is meaning that this passage is saying that God the Father has given us peace with Himself through Christ and that through this we will also have peace with others. And that’s absolutely right. But I think there could be a little more here than that. First off, Paul is Jewish and the word “shalom” or “peace” meant a little more than that. It would refer to God’s covenantal love to us. But it also was a term where you wished for those who knew you to experience everything as it should be. Remember in the Fall things got all out of wack so we look forward to things being delivered. Well, in Christ we have shalom or peace. It was the suffering and raising of Christ that bought us this peace. So, we could see how that peace could connect with that little phrase, “In Christ.”

But there’s more. These Ephesians lived under Roman control. And at this time there was this thing called the “Pax Romana” or the peace of Rome. This was a ruling that Rome would protect all of those cities under it’s control and they would ensure a dominant position in the world. So, not only was this peace, or shalom, in the Lord Jesus Christ. But he was teaching that this peace from Christ is greater than any promise or provision the world could provide.

There is great help here for us as we may face temptation to trust or rest in what the world says it can give us. Instead as Christians, we can rest in the grace and peace given to us by our God.

Lesson

Paul takes greetings at that time and Christianizes them. How can we, as Christians, behave in a similar manner towards things we come in contact with in our own lives in a genuine way? How can we impact our teams, our friends, our culture with the gospel. The primary thing, one writer said, is to remember authenticity. As the gospel has transformed us, it transforms our impact.